Environment

The Government’s reliance on dated carbon credits to extinguish over half of its Paris Agreement target might not be authorised, forcing it to purchase last-minute international permits or drastically reduce emissions to cover huge gap.

New analysis by the Australia Institute identified numerous legal, diplomatic and ethical barriers to using Kyoto Protocol carry-over credits, which undermine the government’s heavy reliance the credits.

It’s now 12 years (and seven prime ministers) since John Howard promised to introduce a price on carbon and – despite emissions having increased to a new high and a number of big coal fired power stations having shut down – Australia still doesn’t have anything approaching a coherent climate and energy policy.

The recent modelling of climate action produced by Brian Fisher is a complete outlier compared to an analysis of over 20 recent modelling exercises and Treasury models, according to new research from the Australia Institute Climate & Energy Program.

An extensive comparison of 18 recent modelling reports and three Treasury models of climate action in Australia found the economic impacts of high ambition targets are very small to negligible.

Debate about the cost of climate action is a recurring feature of Australian politics and has been central to the political turmoil of the last decade. Advocates for delaying or limiting climate action often point to modelling that claims to show the costs of action are very high.

Australia’s current climate targets, of 26% below 2005 levels by 2030, are inadequate and leave Australians exposed to large costs from increasing climate change. In the Paris Agreement, Australia agreed current targets were too low and must be increased. According to the Climate Change Authority, Australia’s targets should be at least 45% by 2030 to be in line with the Paris Agreement.

The mismanagement of the Murray-Darling Basin has become a national issue in 2019. While the Basin’s problems are widely discussed, solutions are not. Practical steps to turn around the fortunes of the Basin and its people are:

The electorate of Herbert stands to be heavily impacted by climate change. Increasing floods, drought and heatwaves will impact the community’s health, environment, infrastructure and vital industries, particularly agriculture and mining unless decisive action is taken to tackle climate change

Analysis of released documents shows that the licences bought by the Commonwealth didn’t exist until the vendors estimated the volumes of the licences themselves, at the suggestion of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. Due diligence was problematic. At least half of the water purchased cannot count towards water recovery targets as it was not included in the baseline diversion limits.

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The Australia Institute is the country’s most influential progressive think tank. We conduct research on a broad range of economic, social and environmental issues in order to inform public debate and bring greater accountability to the democratic process.